Part 8
You stand suddenly and, startled, Paul scrambles to his feet beside you. You look around at him with a new confidence.
"Paul, thank you."
"What for, Jay?"
"For reminding me what I am and what that means." You tell him. "Paul, I'm out of my time here. I'm as much an alien on earth as the Sorsons or anyone else would be. You reminded me that the Federation is crying out for telepaths with our abilities and the war they're fighting is defending Earth as well. If the war up there is lost then you and Elena and John and TIM will be powerless to save the Earth. I want to go up to the Trig, Paul, and be an alien among aliens instead. I want to use my abilities to defend my planet in the best way I can."
*
John tries to talk you out of your decision but he doesn't try hard. There is a kind of weary resignation in his mind, and a curious envy. He feels trapped on Earth, you see, helpless while his friends and the children he has trained go off into space, perhaps to die there.
[You're doing a good job here, John.] You tell him silently. [You're needed.]
[I know.] He tells you. [But that doesn't make it any easier.]
You've packed your few meager belongings into a rucksack now but you feel surprisingly little emotion about leaving the Lab. You're not saying goodbye to your parents or school friends. As far as they know you've been dead or missing for twenty years. Of your Tomorrow People friends one is a prisoner and one is already dead. Only John and TIM tie you to the Earth and those ties have stretched over many years. It feels as if you left all this behind the moment you made that fateful jaunt. The last couple of days have been little more than a dream.
"Jay, are you sure of this?" TIM asks persistently. You step on to the jaunting pad and look around the Lab at Paul and Elena, at John and TIM. As you answer TIM's questions you feel the truth of your words.
"As sure as I've been of anything, TIM. Here I'm out of place and out of time. Up there I can actually be what I was already intended to be. Up there I can make a difference."
You take a deep breath.
"Jaunt me out, TIM."
And your old life fades away to be replaced by the new.
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